Hood Life and Love: I Am What I Am

Chapter 22

The next few days were business as usual. Other than business we started Operation Stalk the French Guy and Operation Bachelor Party. We weren't making progress with the French guy. What we had was what we were going to have apparently. We couldn't find much of anything else on him and we still didn't know what these parties were about. We were pumped and ready to find out tomorrow though. It would be all hands on deck. A show of strength and force, so that he would hopefully not have hard feelings once we told him to kick rocks.

The Bachelor party was good to go for tonight though. It was the one thing that was going right. This wedding was happening in three days and it was going to be perfect. We had decided against the bachelor party being the night before because yeah we didn't want Joey getting wasted the night before his wedding. He was an asshole with a hangover and even harder to wake up when he was drunk. 

So tonight he could get as wasted as he wants. Tomorrow we meet with the French guy and in three days Joey would be married and I could return to my life as I enjoyed it. 

Today I was sitting with the guys in the basement of the cleaners. I was surrounded by my brothers as they discussed intimidation tactics and what to do if things went bad.  I only half listened. That was partly due to my phone vibrating in my pocket and partly due to my newest biggest distraction. I didn't have to look at my phone to know who it was. I had kind of been avoiding Geo. Okay, so I was avoiding Geo. His texts and calls had started less than thirty minutes after I left his house. I had expected him to be mad or leave me alone. 

However, I was finding Geo was a different type of special. He texted me as if everything was fine. He was asking how my day was and if I had eaten. He asked if we should meet and informed me of a new batch he had gotten recently. He told me about his day and what Big D was up to. The only thing he had said as far as the night we shared was a three-sentence text that said, Never had you pegged for a runner. I was looking forward to seeing you when I woke up. See you soon. 

I never replied to any of his messages and if he was trying to put me on edge, he succeeded. I turned every corner expecting to see Geo, and I expected to see him walk through every door, but so far nothing. Just his conversational text messages that I refused to reply to.

Waking up next to Geo, wrapped in him had been the most terrifying moment of my life. That was saying something because I had been through hell and back and fear was never an emotion I embraced. However, that was what coursed through my veins upon waking up in his arms. It had been too much. Too much of everything.  Too much like right, too much like intimacy, and too much like what I had hoped to have with Christian. 

It was a surreal experience that caught me so off guard my first instinct had been panic. Then came reality and the memories of all the shit we had done to each other throughout the night. It had been very early morning when we had finally fallen asleep, only for him to wake me up as he slowly entered me from behind. It had almost been like a dream, except I knew it was real. 

He had taken me slowly as he whispered promises I would never expect him to keep. It was almost embarrassing how I had behaved with him. It had been wild, and uninhibited. It had been the best sexy of my life. Not that I had much to compare it with. Still, that night had been different. Geo brought out a vulnerability in me that I had never shared with anyone.  That night I would have agreed to anything. 

In the light of day, it gave way to the same old bullshit. Geo was not mine. He would never be mine and I could not let myself get pulled back into the bullshit life that came with a relationship. I enjoyed my freedom. The freedom of not worrying about what my man was doing and who he was with. 

The nail in the coffin was the fact that he was still Big D's son and an atomic asshole. Oh and let's not forget he is a man whore. Who gave me the best sex of my life? I squirmed and jumped lightly at the discomfort between my legs. Days full of warm baths had passed and I was still feeling him. 

I closed my eyes as flashbacks from that night hit me hard. Being sensible about what our relationship was did nothing to douse the desire I felt on a catastrophic level for that man.  I had nothing to compare him to, other than Christian, but if I had to choose he was easily the better lover. That thought brought some guilt. Christian and I had been kids caught up in puppy love. But he had been my love and now he was like a distant thought. 

Oh, I was still pissed at him for ghosting me but when my body heated it wasn't his touch I craved. It was getting harder to picture his face and remember his voice. The two men were so different. Geo was bold and ruff at times. Whereas Christian had always been very gentle with me as if I would break. Geo had this air of raw power while Christian's vibe was more zero to one hundred in a second. 

Most of all I felt like Geo saw the real me. He had always surprised me with how much he knew about me. How he could order for me at a restaurant, or answer a question in the exact way I would have. We had seen each other a lot over the last few years. I was always aware of him sitting back and watching. I had thought he didn't trust me.

Little did I know he had been watching me like some rare exotic animal he coveted. He was attentive and softly aggressive in a way that always lit my lady parts up. If I wasn't careful he could make me fall in love with him. That little thought is what had me sliding out from under his heavy arm and making my escape because under no circumstances was that going to happen.

"You okay A?" Terrance asked snapping me out of my daze. 

My eyes popped open to meet his concerned ones. Immediately I sat up straight and cleared my throat. My eyes landed on my family. 

"I'm fine," I said and looked down at the blueprint of the mansion Frenchy was living in. It was a massive place that was more like a fortress. It used to be a museum that someone had the bright idea to turn into a house. It would be hard to escape if we were in a hot spot. He had guards at least fifteen that rotated around the clock and often entertained high-profile guests. The mayor, senators, and the governor had been to his home. 

"Guys," I said interrupting their low conversation that was surely about yours truly. "We have to be smart about this. This dude is organized crime at its best. We don't want to get in a shootout inside that house. The exits will be guarded and we will be surrounded. It would be suicide."

"But what if he tried something with us?" Joey asked. "Do you want us to just back down?"

I sat back in my chair and shook my head. "I didn't say that. I'm just saying we be smart."

"And if shit go sideways?" Montel asked.

"We do what we have to to get out alive. Catch him on the rebound and on our terms. Still, it would be smart to have some bodies outside as well as in the house with us. We will have our guns."

"I doubt they let us in strapped up," Joey said as he poured everyone a drink.

"Then we give them no choice," Terrance said. 

"Exactly," I said smiling as I accepted the drink from Joey. "If they try to even check us we walk away."

There was an overall agreement and we were back to talking about the bachelor party. I was just about to check my phone when there was a commotion on the stairs. Suddenly there was some yelling coming towards the door. I had my pistol; out and aimed at the door when a woman came barreling through. She tripped and fell on her hands and knees before she slowly stood up. 

She was dirty. The dress she had on was flat as a pancake and her hair was matted. Dark soulless eyes zeroed in on me and they widened in alarm. I narrowed my eyes as I realized I knew that face. She had seen better days but I knew her. I had nearly registered that before Tory the door guard came running into the room winded, In his arms there was a child. A little boy. I stepped around the desk as I realized I knew his face as well or at least an older version of it. He had the face of Christian James.